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Monday, October 21, 2013

31 Days of Halloween 2013: Poutrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead

Review by Bob Ignizio

Ok, I'm not gonna lie to you folks. I'm doing a bit of recycling here. I
originally wrote this review for my Myspace blog back in 2008. It's
been a hectic weekend, and I just didn't have time to write anything
new. But dammit, I'm not going to miss a day in this completely
arbitrary and self-imposed "31 Days of Halloween" thing, so here's my review of POULTRYGEIST: NIGHT OF THE
CHICKEN DEAD.

Complaining about a Troma movie being stupid and tasteless would
be kind of like criticizing water for being wet; that's just its
nature. And speaking of wet, POULTRYGEIST: NIGHT OF THE
CHICKEN DEAD is awash in bodily fluids, splattering blood, puke,
puss and diarrhea across the screen by the gallons. But in
between the dick jokes, gay Mexican jokes, alcoholic Indian jokes and
fart jokes, director Lloyd Kaufman actually goes for a few laughs
that aren't of the cheap variety. POULTRYGEIST is meant
to be a satire of the corporatization of America, and Lloyd shows no
more restraint when it comes to tearing big business a new asshole
than he does when it comes to ripping the rectums out of his
characters (which happens at least twice in this movie; I stopped
counting).
The plot this blend of political incorrectness and social
commentary hangs on concerns Arbie (Jason Yachanin), a dumb schmuck
in love with the considerably smarter Wendy (Kate Graham). However,
the two grow apart when Wendy goes off to college and discovers the
joys of protesting and lesbian love with Micki D.(Allyson Sereboff).
To get back at Wendy for leaving him, Arbie takes a job at the
American Chicken Bunker restaurant that Wendy and her lover are
rallying against. Unfortunately the place was built over an
ancient Indian burial ground, and soon most of the staff and
customers are transformed into chicken headed zombies as angry Native
American spirits join forces with equally pissed-off poultry to seek
revenge.

When I was 15 or so, Troma movies like THE TOXIC AVENGER and
CLASS OF NUKE 'EM HIGH seemed really transgressive and
entertaining. Now they just leave me going, "eh".
I admire Troma for remaining staunchly independent and still
managing to get their movies into theaters, but in some ways they
aren't all that different from the fast food companies they take aim
at here. Like McDonald's, the customer always knows what kind
of mediocrity to expect from Troma product, and there's a certain
comfort in that. So even though it isn't very good for
you, if you're hungry for a Big Mac slathered with Uncle Lloyd's
special sauce, POULTRYGEIST should fill you up just fine.
2 ½ stars out of 4.

1 comment:

This was the best Troma film I've ever seen, I loved how it criticizes fast food and corporate America while at the same time doing all the usual weird crap they do in all their films...but a hundred times more intense! Crazy movie no doubt!